Share this on:

"Women",... throughout time have serenaded their unborn children with soothing melodic music,...always to follow-up upon birth,...the ever enduring lullabies of love,...this unique voice of life's harmonious sweetness that only mother's possess. PS. I wish your twins a wonderful life,...:)

Robert

January 5th, 2010 11:44 pm ET

The latest attempt to blow up a plane illustrates how the American people have allowed power-hungry politicians and ratings-hungry journalists to stampede us into throwing away our liberties in the name of security. Writes Glenn Greenwald:

This is what inevitably happens to a citizenry that is fed a steady diet of fear and terror for years. It regresses into pure childhood. The 5-year-old laying awake in bed, frightened by monsters in the closet, who then crawls into his parents’ bed to feel Protected and Safe, is the same as a citizenry planted in front of the television, petrified by endless imagery of scary Muslim monsters, who then collectively crawl to Government and demand that they take more power and control in order to keep them Protected and Safe. A citizenry drowning in fear and fixated on Safety to the exclusion of other competing values can only be degraded and depraved. John Adams, in his 1776 Thoughts on Government, put it this way:

Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.

As Adams noted, political leaders possess an inherent interest in maximizing fear levels, as that is what maximizes their power. For a variety of reasons, nobody aids this process more than our establishment media, motivated by their own interests in ratcheting up fear and Terrorism melodrama as high as possible. The result is a citizenry far more terrorized by our own institutions than foreign Terrorists could ever dream of achieving on their own. For that reason, a risk that is completely dwarfed by numerous others — the risk of death from Islamic Terrorism — dominates our discourse, paralyzes us with fear, leads us to destroy our economic security and eradicate countless lives in more and more foreign wars, and causes us to beg and plead and demand that our political leaders invade more of our privacy, seize more of our freedom, and radically alter the system of government we were supposed to have. The one thing we don’t do is ask whether we ourselves are doing anything to fuel this problem and whether we should stop doing it. As Adams said: fear ”renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable.”

The government will never be able to make us completely safe, even if strips away all of our liberties. But if it does the latter, America will have lost the very values which makes our country worth defending. Then the terrorists truly will have won.

Doug Bandow, American Conservative Defense Alliance

Hope

January 6th, 2010 4:20 am ET

The little infant boy should have been named Foofy :)

Carlos

January 6th, 2010 3:11 pm ET

RObert,

What does your blithering have to do with the subject of the blog???

Feel free to walk to your desired location if you feel that your privacy is infringed upon if you choose a public transportation system!

More whining and crying from the oppressed !!

Get over it

Filipe

January 6th, 2010 9:10 pm ET

I agree with Carlos, if anyone can't accept the required security measures in order to use the public transportation systems-- let them feel free to choose an alternative method- drive-walk--ride your bike-swim--hire your own private transportation !!!

A persons' individual rights and liberties stop at the exact first point that they infringe on the safety, security and liberties of others!

eddie

January 7th, 2010 12:30 am ET

Carlos,

Mozart therapy might stop the whining and crying. But you are correct about the Palestinians being oppressed. We should all get behind the Goldstone report and kick Israel out of the occupied lands. Like you implied the Jews have created all the middle east problems and they should walk back to where they came from i.e. Russia

Carlos

January 7th, 2010 11:23 am ET

eddie,

I see you fail bsic English comprehension.

Where did mention anything about the Palestinians being oppressed?? Where did I imply anything about any Jews??

You should invest some time in basic English comp. courses--you might not appear so foolish in futhure!

In the meantime, maybe you should check out some of the blogs geared toward adolescent subjects. You may not be so overwhelmed with the conversations.

Filipe

January 7th, 2010 1:07 pm ET

eddie,

No matter what, some morons can always show their true bigotry by turning each and every comment into something negative about Jews or Israel !!!

Glad to see you are a member of the crowd who feels the need to spread hatred and bigotry at every opportunity !!

miriam

January 7th, 2010 4:20 pm ET

eddie,

Some new music to your ears:

Not all Jews passed through Russia on their wanders from one oppressive experience to another.

The ME has been home to conflict forever.

There is no reason that Jews whose religion and history revolves around the Holy Land should not have a homeland there.

There is no occupation. That is just political rhetoric that has been used as propaganda to mislead the gullible of the world.

I would have thought libertarians would object to ethnic cleansing. Or do they change their tune when Jews are the subject.

eddie

January 8th, 2010 6:16 pm ET

Miriam you are so good to remind us that not all jews come from Russia. There are also Jews from the Ukraine and America, sorry I forgot that and no offence was meant.

Again Miriam you correctly state there is no occupation. Israel crushed Palestine into non existence and you can't occupy something that doesn't exist. But my point is that some Palestinians have survived and they deserve a safe place to live, just like the Jews were given Israel after WWII. So now the Palestinians should be given a country to protect them from the Israelis.

Filipe says I agree with Carlos. Thats brilliant man, because Filipe also writes under the name Carlos. Great humor again Filipe, but when people don't know you as well as I do they wont appreciate your sarcasm. Well I can tell you Filipe really supports and understands the Palestinian persecution and he wont stop until Israel is brought to justice. But this is a tiring job and sometimes Filipe lightens up with sarcastic humor. Keep going Filipe and we will see a free Palestine soon!!

university rector

January 9th, 2010 8:43 pm ET

Eddie

There is occupation

Palestinians occupy Jewish lands

Palestinians have rioted against Jews for years

Palestinians spread blood libel against Jews

Palestinians (the Mufti of Jerusalem and his gang) cooperated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime in Germany

And put it in your small brain, the Jews were not given Israel after WW2, they had it long before Islam even existed

And that is a fact!

miriam

January 10th, 2010 8:36 am ET

eddie,

Jews had a homeland in the Holy Land long before Christianity or Islam or the arrival of Arabs from Arabia.

There has never been a state called Palestine. The Romans invented the name for the province they had conquered from the Jews and the name was never officially used again from the fall of the Romans until the formation of the British Mandate which was created with the purpose of re-establishing the Jewish homeland.

80% of Mandatory Palestine originally designated to be the Jewish state was divided off to create an Arab state, Jordan which had to be ethnically cleansed of Jews. The Jews were fine with that but the Arabs were not since it would still mean a Jewish state on the remaining 20%.

The UN Partition Plan to further divide the remaining 20% was still not enough for the Arabs.
The Jews accepted their state with the Arab inhabitants allowed to remain.
The Arabs are to blame for not accepting that they were given states for their people. They prefer to let their own suffer than to accept a Jewish state.

John A

January 10th, 2010 12:47 pm ET

University Rector wrote, "ews were not given Israel after WW2, they had it long before Islam even existed"
----------

If we apply the same principle of Jewish heritage to other nations, does this mean the Americas should be handed back to native red Indians and Australia returned to the aborigines.

If you don't believe all ancient lands should be returned to past ancient rulers, why is Israel an exception? To be honest it is because of sympathy from the holocaust and WWII. I understand Jewish pride might not like to accept this, but the truth is Jews would not have seized the state of Israel if they were not backed by Western sympathizers.

WWII sympathy is a curious thing. 20 million Russians died, but they get no sympathy because of the cold war. 9 million Germans died but they get no sympathy because they started the war. 6 million Jews died but over 30 million Christians died fighting for freedom. i.e. we were all victims of WWII and the Jews were not really so unique in this.

Filipe

January 10th, 2010 8:45 pm ET

eddie,

Palestine is free, they freed of military occupation by the Israelis in 1967.

And the Palestinians were given a country by the same UN resolution that re-created Israel. The only difference is that the Palestinians were too ignorant to accept the state that was given-- Oh well !!! Now all you can do is whine and cry and blame Israel. Go figure !!!!

How is it that it's Israels' fault that the Palestinians are so stupid??

miriam

January 11th, 2010 12:29 pm ET

John A,

The process towards Jewish statehood in the Holy Land began long before WW2 and the Holocaust that wiped out at least 80% of European Jewry.

The Soviets had a republic, the Germans had a state and many victims of WW2 had their own homelands and were unfortunate casualties of a war, typical of all wars where civilians are killed aswell as combatants.
The Jews, along with other minorities, were deliberately targeted for extermination. In that they were unique.

After WW2, with thousands of stateless Jewish refugees fenced off in displacement camps and squeezed onto boats being rejected by one country after another, there was increased sympathy towards the fulfilment of the legally binding mandate given by the League of Nations to the British for the re-establishment of a Jewish state on their historical homeland.

The Arabs, observing the sympathetic reaction that refugee camps can trigger, thought that they may gain the same results, however they lacked the same historical and legal background and made a crucial mistake by failing to be flexible, tolerant and able to compromise.
Since then, they have been able to revise history and belittle the suffering of the Jews by inventing equivalency of the Jewish experience with that of the Palestinians.

eddie

January 11th, 2010 12:44 pm ET

Filipe you say "How is it that it's Israels' fault that the Palestinians are so stupid"??

Filipe by calling Palestinians stupid you imply that Jews are superior to Palestinians. It seems Filipe who is my x lover has become bitter. Filipe, claims of being a superior race are dangerous and false. Perhaps your dangerous and false Zionist beliefs are a definition of the Middle East conflict.

As I said before, Fillipe I know you have some good qualities, but you are so hard to live with. Please end your bitterness and show some human compassion and respect to your Muslim neighbors. After all hate is not end with hate, it is ended with love.

Carlos

January 11th, 2010 4:15 pm ET

John A,

Your basic premise about retrunig the lands to their ancient rulers is quite faulty.

Let me explain, the Jews have lived in Judea for over 4 millenia.

The white European settlers never in all of the histrory of the earth ever lived in North America or Austrailia until the lands were colonized and the native populations decimated in the process.

Why should the white European settlers have the right to the lands they colonized and the Jews not have the right to the lands of their ancestors and cradle of their religion??

Please explain !!

No sympathy for the Germans-of course not- they started the war

No sympathy for the Russians- of course not-they were the acomplices of Hitler!

Why does this need any explanation??

Filipe

January 11th, 2010 10:16 pm ET

eddie,

Sorry about your confusion, but the stupidity of the choices of the Palestinian people is self evident.

I am neither Jewish nor Israeli so this assumption you've made of my race is just your typical ignorance speaking out loud again.

But, really, I doubt anyone on the blog really cares about your sexuality and flaming characterizations yourself. I'm sure you'd fit much better on the gay parade blog. After all the Arabs and the Persians have a tendency to execute homosexuals- you might want to be careful about what you do and say.

John A

January 14th, 2010 3:33 pm ET

To Carlos/Filipe, or whatever you call yourself today.

Carlos said the "Jews have lived in Judea for over 4 millennia".

Carlos if you skip history for 3000 years you would be correct, but you cant be surprised to know you are wrong again.

Carlos where did the first Christians come from, Jerusalem!!
Jews converted to Christianity.

Jews also converted to the Muslim faith on the arrival of Arabs.

For over 2000 years, less than 3% of your ancient Israel were Jewish.
Basically Israel has not been Jewish since man left the caves.

Carlos are you still living in a cave? This would explain everything.

Filipe

January 16th, 2010 3:30 pm ET

John A.

You need to take a refresher course on world history-- try a beginners level course to start with.

You might be surprised to learn that the Israelites lived in the land of Judea and Samaria and the the Arabs are from the Arabian peninsula.

Surprise !!!

You might also be surprised to learn that when you choose to convert from one religion to another- it has no effect on your ethnicity or ethnic origins !!!

Wow- another big surprise for John A !!!!

No matter how hard you try or how much wish and pray-- the fact remains that the Jews were in the land of Israel long before the Arabs and their right to live there is undeniable.

As you so stated above-– "Jews also converted to the Muslim faith on the arrival of Arabs."

But you left out one part--- the Jews were given the choice to convert to Islam or die !!!

Robert

January 17th, 2010 12:27 pm ET

Filipe you didn't even come close to answering John A's point. The ancient Jewish nation of judea is ancient history. It has not been Jewish land for 3000 years.

Here's a parallel argument using Filipes logic: The first day in history was Sunday, today is Sunday and therefore it has always been Sunday. Sounds the same as the first inhabitants practiced Judaism, today they practice Judaism and so the land has always been Jewish.
Filipe mate, turn yourself in and seek help.

Filipe

January 17th, 2010 3:29 pm ET

John As' brother Robert,

Your brother John A has no point of any validity. The land in question is the ancestral homeland of the Jews– and that's an undenieable fact.

They existed there long before Christianity or Islam existed and before the Arabs migrated from the Arabian Peninsula. The Jews have maintained a continuous presence there for over 4 millenia.

Sorry it bothers you so much that the Jews a small piece of the desert!

Who cares how many or what % of the total population in modern times was Jewish ??? No one but ignorant bigots who seek to deny the existence of Israel.

miriam

January 18th, 2010 9:36 am ET

Robert,

Jewish religious practice revolves around the Land, even when observed by Jews outside.
To deny the connection of Judaism to the Land is to deny the Jewish religion......